Why Idiots Should Not Have Access to Printing Presses

You can’t really blame Baltimore Sun writer Julie Bykowicz for writing nonsense – after all she’s a journalist and, by definition an expert at nothing except the high art of avoiding ending sentences with prepositions and the like. And you can’t blame the San Francisco Chronicle for publishing her story – after all it was critical of Newt Gingrich and the knee-jerk lefties at the Chronicle are not capable of objective thinking. It is deep in their DNA to agree with anything critical of a guy like Gingrich. But Bloomberg-Business Week? They have no excuse.

“Gingrich has uttered the term “Lean Six Sigma” at least 28 times since August in campaign appearances, debates and media interviews, a review of transcripts and news accounts shows. At the same time, Mike George, the investor who has written six books on Lean Six Sigma, paid for mailings, handouts and automated phone calls backing Gingrich in the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primary last month.

George’s financial support comes through a political action committee, Strong America Now, which he created and solely funds. The dynamic illustrates a new way for wealthy individuals to leverage the high visibility of a presidential election as a public-relations tool for a specific company, product or message.”

Did Julie call any of you, me, Jim Womack, Norman Bodek, even the local community college professor to ask the first thing about lean or Six Sigma? Of course not, or she would have learned that (1) Mike George is not the originator of the idea and (2) is probably so far down the list of consultants and authors who might benefit from a national commitment to the idea as to be irrelevant.

Instead, she talked to a crank from Public Citizen – a Washington outfit dedicated to the proposition that, if business does something – anything – it must be evil. Said the Public Citizen expert on lean Six Sigma, “This goes beyond the concern about coordination, and smack dab into the concern of having a mutually profitable business relationship between a super-PAC and a presidential candidate. There’s Gingrich out there selling Mike George’s book while Mike George helps to promote Gingrich’s candidacy. That’s kind of amazing.”

What is amazing is that Gingrich is promoting an idea aimed at rooting waste out of government and heightening the value of government efforts for the benefit of its customers – us – and Julie, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bloomberg-Business Week, Washington liberal think tanks, and just about every left leaning blogger on the Internet line up against the idea without bothering to learn the first thing about it.

The fact that the Army, Navy and the Air Force are all pursuing lean, Six Sigma and the blend of the two – and are paying someone other than Mike George to help them – is a fact that a cursory Google search would uncover. But that effort would make too much sense and, even worse, would kill an opportunity for Julie to peddle a hot story and for those who publish her work, to demonize Gingrich.

I agree 100% with your message, Bill. Because you made it an important point, I do need to point out that the Army, Navy, and (I think) the Air Force did in fact at one time pay Mike George (via The George Group) to help them implement LSS. In addition to personal knowledge, this is even spelled out on the Strong America Now website. The website also includes the fact that Mr. George gave up his commercial interests in LSS after he sold his company to Accenture, which further strengthens your point about the incompentence of so many in the media!

Oh for fuckssake. There are just as many idiots and cranks on the right as on the left and Bill you are smart enough to know this. Boilerplate rants like this – from either side! – are cathartic but lead to NO solutions and no forward movement – just more spinning in circles and stomping of feet that makes moderates like me want to give up entirely. Pot meet kettle – this post *almost* makes me want to stop reading your blog.

Donna, I am first and foremost an ardent believer, supporter and defender of lean. You show me the “idiots and cranks” on the right who are slamming lean and I will give them the same treatment. Until then you sound like someone doing little more than attempting to defend the indefensible.

This drives me nuts about government. In 2005 a report came to the Government of Ontario showing the benefit of deregulating the “booze” distribution network. Apparently it would result in $200 million in extra revenue for the government and the obvious better choices for consumers. Alberta did it 19 years ago and it turned out to be a fantastic decision. But instead, they turned it down – allowing the continued dominance of only two major retailers (one who is a foreign owned entity) being allowed to sell booze. Fast forward to 2012 and Ontario has been downgraded and a recent report shows we are in serious trouble if we can’t curb public spending. Public spending that got the same party elected the last 3 elections. Drives me nuts.

Political philosophy has nothing to do with process improvement. There are a lot of us lefties out there that use Lean and Six Sigma to improve the way business is done no matter what the sector. Knock the journalist all you want for being not doing her homework, but let’s not make too many generalizations. You are better than that.

The thing I find offensive about the article is their attempt at smearing the reputation of Mike George. I’m not a big “Lean Sigma” fan, but that’s not the point. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he thinks he’s doing the right thing for our country by trying to push Lean and Six Sigma into greater use in the federal government. I’m skeptical of our ability to save $500B a year with it, but he thinks we can.

To print an article that says he’s doing it for his own financial self interest is not journalism, it’s a smear job of the first degree. Shame on that writer and that editor.

If Bill was a real reporter and not just another blogger he would have done at least a tiny bit of research and learned that Bykowicz is a Bloomberg News reporter and not a Baltimore Sun reporter. Great fact checking yourself bud.

…and if Tom were a blogger and not just a no-last-name commenter he would have made the tiniest bit of effort and clicked on Julie Bykowicz’ name in the blog post and it would have taken him to her Baltimore Sun biography page.